We held our position closer to the target star and continued to monitor probe 23 (it remained stable due to our onsite repair efforts) while scanning the target dark energy star. The crew continued to follow my current orders of trying to understand why this particular star, TU990 in the cartographic index, behaved the way it did. It seemed mostly related to the imperfect stellar core development that Amanda had noted earlier. Yet it seemed from the overall readings that was only part of the problem. Why did we still have our doubts? Largely because the core imperfections still wouldn't be enough to cause problems on the level that they were occurring; and the star appeared stable otherwise. Whether it was a subspace aspect or similar remained to be seen.
We were about fifteen hours into our arrival here. Crew shifts had changed as normal but Xon Amanda and I - the superhuman troika of Excelsior as it were - continued to monitor/crunch the changing numbers without tiring. It was time for a periodic update. "Captain, our latest theory is that tu990 is the epicenter to a unique dark energy/subspace distortion event. That could explain its unique properties." My gut had thought something along those lines, but I'd also wanted real science to back it up. "Is this distortion event common to the other stars of the region?" "That we still don't know for sure; not without closer examination," said Amanda. We would surely get to those; but tu990 still had to be our immediate focus. Its anomalous nature was proven fact now. Now it was time to understand why that was the case.
"Mister Rogers - come with me to stellar cartography and let's do some more detailed work down there." "Yes sir."
We arrived. She took the station seat and tapped into our real time scans. The nearly panoramic station, one of my favorites on the ship, could display all kinds of data. It also showed text comments by the Starfleet/civilian experts aboard ship. Most had concluded similarly with us. Tu990's status could also be unique; as every subspace domain was. No matter what we were just scratching the surface here. Amanda used the more specialized controls of the stellar cartography lab to show a larger detailed image of tu990's interior.
It came up; she zoomed in to put it right before the core and its immediate outer layers beyond that. "I can definitely see the core imperfections you mentioned." "Yes sir. But whether or not this has created a subspace distortion within tu990's celestial structure or the opposite remains a mystery." I sighed in thought. "Theories?" "Without using better detection methods there's no way to be certain." "In the conventional sense anyhow?" She bent grinned/nodded. "Right." We wanted to solve this without using anything godly. It was both challenging and thrilling; and all true research took time and was proven either way in time; and that was only truly done through ongoing constant analysis. And everyone tended to forget the purpose of the scientific methodology wasn't to prove theories right but rather to prove them wrong; it was only when it had gone through all attempts to prove it wrong that it was in turn proven right. In other words a working scientific theory had to prove itself right. It was the golden rule of all hard scientific research; inasmuch as Holmes' golden rule of criminal detection was rooted in eliminating the impossible to arrive at the inescapable truth; no matter how crazy/improbable it seemed otherwise. And believe it or not Holmes' rule could also be applied to any kind of mystery; even the research ones like the ones were dealing with now.
We were ruling out the impossible at this very moment with regards to celestial body tu990. "Mister Rogers - what is going to take to figure this out; bottom line?" "We have several options sir - and all depend on concentrated sensor power to find the answer we need." "Elaborate." "We could deploy more probes to the network but assign them to the tu990 scans, or we can position network probes already in the field to study tu990 specifically." "Positioning already deployed probes will delay our scans on the other regional phenomena we are studying here." "Yes sir; that's why I recommend assigning new probes to the fray." "Time frame?" "A few hours sir." That wasn't too bad. "Will this yield the answers we seek though?" "It's eighty percent or better. In any event, we'll definitely have greater details than before." Anything was better than staying in continued ignorance. "Make it so."
Amanda went to configure the new probes manually while I went to my quarters to continue looking over data. Tu990 was the only thing stomping us at the moment; the rest of the probe network's current scanning series was kicking buttocks. We were of course scanning for life forms but none yet had appeared on our network's scopes. It was safe to say that all aliens here in Visar would be non humanoids to be sure. I couldn't wait to meet them too!
Dark energy on a cosmic level was already making the universe expand forever. This ever created new celestial bodies and had been occurring regularly since the big bang. But Visar had to be a concern due to its internal galactic positioning. As mentioned, it wouldn't affect the Fed anytime soon but it was still vital to know these things now in the event something bad did happen down the road. Dark energy could also be used in various WMDs too. Thus this otherwise innocent and honest truth seeking operation had many relevant applications beyond the obvious; including security/defense measures too for the fed. As captain of a research mission that sadly had to be one of my considerations; although it wasn't a primary one. I was here to be Dr. Prince more than Captain Prince.
Content with scanning progress for now I went to ten forward to unwind a little. There Wesley and Donatra were present as well. "How's it going up there captain?" said Wesley. "Good so far." We got some fake booze and hung out together at a table. "Tu990 still posing a problem?" "Yes; but Amanda's got some non Q tricks up her sleeve to get us the answers we need." "Cool beans. Any life form readings?" "No; but we're not even really moving into the interior of this region yet. That won't occur for a few days at least; all depending on tu990 for now." "Copy that."
Like Kirk I tended to be relatively informal with my men when off duty; JL tended to be more formal with them even when off duty (although I'd heard from good sources he'd mellowed quite a bit in recent years). Donatra said, "I've spoken with the civilians - especially those with families - and reassured them that safety remains a priority for the ship." I read between the lines on her words. "But they need additional reassurance from me because you're a Romulan." She gave a small grin/nodded. "Yes captain." "I'll take care of it; and I'll remind them you're my first officer and that your word is law after mine." "If you need my help with that please let me know," said Wesley. "Thanks Wesley but I think we can handle this," said I. He nodded and drank more of his beer. Morale concerns remained minor overall despite the understandable bigotry speed bump; but it was good to stay on top of things too. Plus we'd anticipated this happening. It was the times and it was life. But we would beat it as we had everything in history bad. That's what Starfleet did and would keep doing. And we would do it without Q cheats too!